Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Concerns about Tutoring

My anxieties and worries about being a tutor align, for the most part, with those of past tutors. Like them, I am nervous about providing good advice and guidance. I feel a good deal of pressure from myself and others to provide accurate and useful advice and guidance. To quote Uncle Ben, "With great power comes great responsibility." Okay, maybe tutoring is not a position of "great power." But tutors are in a position to assist their peers with a subject they will use their entire lives, writing. From this perspective, tutoring (on any subject) is very powerful indeed. This responsibility that comes from tutoring is from where my nervousness stems. I owe my peers the best tutoring that I can offer, and I do not want to fall short of that.

The "power" and responsibility that tutoring entails makes it rewarding work. Teaching and tutoring both provide an opportunity to make a significant and positive impact on a person's life. I look forward to the rewarding feeling of assisting my peers with such an important subject.

I am also somewhat nervous about simply interacting with many new people. Although I do not consider myself withdrawn or shy, interacting with a number of new people on a daily basis is a bit intimidating. I take comfort that the many of the tutees will be nervous for the same reason. My goal is to make interacting with new people a positive experience and even something to look forward to.

I am confident that, as I begin to tutor, I will become more comfortable and less anxious. As with any new activity or job, one can easily make it out in their mind to be much more scary or difficult than it actually is.